Brazilian Prime Minister to evict 20,000 people in $6.5 Billion land grab

‘20,000 people in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, are to be attacked by 10,000 military police and evicted from their homes in a land grab mega-operation intent on creating a 6.5 billion dollar profit. 8,000 families will have their houses be demolished, and be thrown into total poverty and homelessness. The military police’s operation is illegal, there is not even a court decision yet for the mass eviction, and the state has not and does not intend to provide alternate housing. Police are simply interested in clearing the land from the 20,000 inhabitants so that real estate can turn it into profit.

Two days ago, residents chained themselves to the Palace of Liberty in Belo Horizonte, in protest aiming to stop the state from rendering them homeless. Residents hope that the Public Ministry of Minas Gerais, and representatives of the Secretariat of Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic will be able to stop the eviction. The sentence given by the judge who initially ordered the eviction is being contested as abuse by lawyers and prosecutors, but another judge who is trying the case did not even allow prosecutors in the courtroom during the trial’s session days ago. Prosecutors are trying to cancel the eviction, and get the judge who issued the sentence fired, but hopes for them to win this case are slim. For now, they’ve managed to halt the police operation for some hours.

However, from helicopters, police already dropped thousands of leaflets announcing residents that, unless they evict themselves, the violence the military police will inflict on them will be their fault – classic fascist victim blaming.’